StretchLearn Course

Design emails that arrive looking exactly the way you built them

Bulletproof HTML layouts, responsive on every phone, readable with images off, and tested across Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail

Preview Curriculum Back to Catalog

Beginner8 hr 45 minSelf PacedRegistered

Course Overview

What this course is designed to develop

Email is not the web. It renders in dozens of clients that each interpret your code differently, blocks your images by default, and inverts your colors in dark mode. This course teaches the constraints first, then the craft: nested table layouts that hold up in Outlook's Word engine, mobile-friendly responsive and hybrid patterns, a call-to-action hierarchy that earns the click, an image-to-text balance that survives blocked images and spam filters, dark-mode handling, and a testing workflow using Litmus or Email on Acid. You finish able to build, theme, and ship a tested promotional email.

Learning Outcomes

What the learner should be able to understand, build, or execute.

Build a bulletproof email layout using nested HTML tables with inline CSS that renders in Outlook's Word engine

Construct responsive and hybrid-coded layouts that adapt from a 600px desktop width down to a single mobile column

Design a call-to-action hierarchy with one primary bulletproof button that survives image blocking

Balance images and live text so the message reads when images are off and stays clear of spam triggers

Handle dark-mode rendering across Apple Mail, Outlook, and Gmail using meta tags and color-scheme techniques

Run a pre-send test pass across major clients with Litmus or Email on Acid and fix the common breakages

Curriculum Preview

Inside the curriculum: a structured path from fundamentals to execution.

Preview the course structure, see how the modules build on one another, and understand the path this program is designed to take you through.

Module 1

Module 1: Why Email Is Not the Web

Understand the rendering landscape, the table-based layout model, and the inline-CSS rules that make an email behave the same way across clients before you design anything.

3 lessons

The rendering landscape and why it breaksContent · 40 min

Preview Enabled

Table-based layout, the email gridContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Inline CSS and the rules that holdContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Module 2

Module 2: Responsive Layouts for Every Screen

Make a single email adapt from a desktop reading pane to a phone, using media-query responsive design and the hybrid fluid approach that degrades gracefully where media queries are ignored.

3 lessons

Mobile-first reality and the viewportContent · 40 min

LMS Access

Media-query responsive designContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Hybrid and fluid layouts for graceful failureContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Module 3

Module 3: Hierarchy, Calls to Action, and the Image Balance

Design the visual hierarchy that guides the eye to a single primary action, build buttons that survive image blocking, and balance images against live text so the message reads with images off.

3 lessons

Visual hierarchy and the one-action ruleContent · 40 min

LMS Access

Bulletproof buttons that survive image blockingContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Image-to-text balance and accessibilityContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Module 4

Module 4: Dark Mode and Cross-Client Testing

Make the email hold up when clients invert colors for dark mode, then run a disciplined pre-send test pass across the major clients and fix the breakages you find.

3 lessons

How dark mode breaks an emailContent · 40 min

LMS Access

Techniques to control dark-mode renderingContent · 45 min

LMS Access

The pre-send test passContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Built for Application

A complete learning path, not a one-off inspiration hit.

This program is designed around progression: focused lessons, structured modules, applied resources, assessments, and a course rhythm that turns information into usable capability.

email designHTML emailresponsive emaildark mode emailemail accessibilityLitmuscall to actionemail marketing